I was a member of the "no hook club" for a while. I ran a Safety Thimble but disliked how much it stuck out. Looked like a nipple on the front of my truck.
My next winchline I ordered with just a tube thimble. This looked much sleeker and worked great with a shackle most of the time.
I ended up putting a hook on and here's why. I got myself into a tight spot on a bad trail. No way to turn around. No way to back out without considerable damage to the vehicle. No way to exit early. It was a ravine trail with a steep hill on one side and a badly eroded bank with exposed tree roots right at window height on the other. And it was muddy. Full lockers and mud tires and I was going nowhere. Did I mention it was uphill? LOL.
So the next hour was spent winching. My copilot stayed outside the truck. He would hook me up to a tree, I would winch 30-40ft, he would unhook me. Reposition and repeat about a dozen times.

Working that screw pin shackle that many times was a real pain. A hook would have been much easier, so I bought one.

 

I like the factor 55 stuff but it's more than I paid for my line and hook combined and I'm a cheap bastard.

Brett, we did a similar pull at WindRock last month. Not quite as bad but about a 100-120' pull along a 4-5' deep V ditch with very large boulders at the bottom. So I know what you mean. Bought a faster winch the day after we got home. The SW Tiger Shark is cheap but it's the slowest winch I've ever used.

 

i like the body mount idea, cheap and pratical

 

So what winch did you buy?
I have the Viking GS-9(rebadged ComeUp, same as the old SW EP9) and it worked awesome. My battery wasn't happy with all that pulling, but the winch did great.
Where are you located, Tobias?

 

wow $300 by the time you buy both halves ouch, I can spend $300 in better ways imo


I ended up using a grinder and flap disc to open the original hook a few thousands so it fits the synthetic rope loop

 

My kind of fix. If you used a friends grinder you wouldn't have even had to pay for the flapper disk!

 

Well you would run the ProLink OR the FlatLink, not both. They are a nice "bit-o-kit", but basically don't do anything that a regular old thimble can't do. Whether you run the FlatLink, ProLink, or $10 thimble every winchline comes with; you still need a shackle to hook anything to it. I could never justify the $$$$$$ for the bling, and that ProLink is like a giant teet on the front of your sleek hawse fairlead.

 

Like Brett said you pick one or the other. With that I would use a soft shackle but that is a different debate...

I've seen hooks let go and I don't trust them and plan to get rid of mine when I switch to synthetic line.

 

Well I'm still a cheap bastard, so I went with the next cheapest thing. I got one of the new Smittybuilt X2O Gen2 winches. They seemed pretty decent and look slick on top of that. Unloaded speed is 32fpm vs 19fpm of the Tiger Shark. Not as fast as the 72fpm of the new Warn CT9i or whatever that one is but less than 1/2 the price.

So far I like it and it was noticeably faster when I was spooling the new line on it under load. We'll see how it holds up but it's ip67 waterproof and has a lifetime mechanical warranty with I think a 2 year electrical warranty.

I'm located in Central NC near Raleigh NC. Only real wheeling place close to here is Uwharrie and unless it's raining not much use for a winch there. WindRock is about 8 hours away but that place is awesome. Made my first trip there for SAE this year. Only ran 4 or 5 trails in 3 days. 1 trail took us from 10am until 5:30pm. I don't think we even covered 10% of that place. I'm definitely going back.

 

Haha, I'm a total cheap bastard too!! I'm into my winch setup for $720 total for all new parts. Winch new was $420 after I sold the provided Viking fairlead for $50. MasterPull 3/8" x 85' Tube Thimble line was $230. Then I splurged on a Rokmen thick hawse fairlead for $70.
Its 44fpm no load speed. It seems pretty fast when spooling in the driveway and I'm trying to wind it.
WindRock sounds pretty cool. Once my truck is finished I want to start hitting the road.